5 Twitter Tips You May Not Know

Twitter is an incredible platform that allows us to share information, network with like individuals and engage with the friends we make along the way. It’s a service that can be used anyway by anyone, but a few tips and tricks along the way can make it easier for new users and Twitteraddicts that have been around for awhile. Today we will share 5 Twitter tips you may not be aware of.

1. Twitter Guide Book: Don’t buy into the twitter training classes and twitter books available for purchase. There is a Twitter Guide Book and it’s Free! Pete Cashmore, Ben Parr and the incredible staff at Mashable have assembled “The Twitter Guide Book” and even have a version available for download. From Twitter basics, to building your Twitter community, to best practices for businesses, this guidebook is constantly being updated to keep track of the ever-changing Twitter environment.

2. Tweet Exposure: There are times when a reply to one user may add value to all of your followers. When you want all of your followers to see a reply you make to one person, don’t begin the tweet with a username. Twitter, in an attempt to cut out noise in the Twitterstream, chose to make tweets that begin with an @username only viewable by people who are following both users. Therefore conversations with friends outside your network have a smaller chance of being seen. If you want your reply to be seen by everyone, simply add a word or symbol to the front of the tweet to allow maximum exposure.

3. Rid Your Stream Of Nonsense RTs: We see retweets all day long with lists of names. Usually these blocks of user names began as a greeting or a shoutout to a group of friends, yet instead of responding, many people have just taken the easy route and retweeted the list. This is definitely exaggerated on #FollowFriday. Think about reconstructing the tweet and making it your own or simply replying to the person that sent it. Make your tweet original and unique and never retweet your own name in a tweet.

4. Don’t Be Repetitive: Everyone wants to get their new blog seen, or share their new video or even alert people to a new service they offer. But if you look at your stream and see that you are constantly tweeting out the same information repetitively, it’s a big fail for you and for those following you that are simply tired of seeing it. One can’t argue that tweeting in different time zones is effective, but limit yourself to no more than twice a day. Your focus should be on becoming part of the community, not on advertising one link over and over again.

5. Give More Than You Receive: This is social media. You must be social to survive. In order to get your message out, you must find other like-minded people who share your sense of humor, your message or enjoy similar interests and engage with them. Now this does not mean find another Twitter user, shove a link in front of them and say “Please RT”. It means to make an attempt to become friends with them, retweet them and respond to them about what they are tweeting about. Over time you will develop friendships and people will want to help you in return… if you have quality content that people want to share. Social media is an incredibly powerful medium, yet the quality of the content you share will always determine how far it travels.

Engage, Enlighten, Encourage and Especially…just be yourself! Social media is a community effort, everyone is an asset!

4 Comments Already

Great advice – especially the last part. It’s all about how kind and generous you are. Generosity is repaid with remarkable speed in this community. “Over time” means days, not years!
.-= Paul Geffen´s last blog ..Twitter Tips I’ve sent as Tweets – plus commentary =-.

Some nice new nuggets in here, which is welcomed in a sea of “me too” Twitter “gurus”. When Twitter first made the change in @ replies, I was unclear on what the etiquette was for whether it is okay to move the addressee’s handle later in the tweet to show it to all. Some may call this Twitter spam, but if the info is good enough and worth sharing, why not? I’d be interested in hearing if anyone else has a strong opinion on this subject.